Herbert Hubel, the chairman of the monitoring committee for Greek football that was established in July, 2017, is due in Athens on Friday after the Super League was suspended due to an incident on 11 March when the owner of PAOK F.C. entered the playing field with a gun.
The European Club Association (ECA) has suspended PAOK’s membership in the organisation indefinitely.
Hubel will meet Athletics Minister Yorgos Vasiliadis and the president of the Hellenic Football Federation, Vaggelis Grammenos.
He will then hold a news conference to address all the sordid issues that have arisen recently in Greek football.
In a letter to Vasiliadis, FIFA demanded that there be no compromises in pursuing the eradication of all manner of violence in Greek football.
The first warning bell for PAOK
That the bell tolls resoundingly for PAOK was evidenced in yesterday’s decision, taken by the European Club Association, (ECA) to indefinitely suspend PAOK membership, “until further notice”.
The ECA’s announcement is as follows:
“ECA strongly condemns the behaviour of PAOK FC President, Ivan Savvidis, who invaded the field of play armed with a gun during the Greek Superleague match between PAOK FC and AEK Athens on Sunday 11th March.” [the ECA uses bolded letters here]
In light of this, and in accordance with the ECA Statutes, the ECA Executive Board unanimously decided to suspend, with immediate effect, PAOK FC as member of the European Club Association.
ECA exists to protect the integrity and regularity of competitions and matches as well as the sporting values and principles on which European football is based.
The suspension remains valid until further notice and shall be reported to the ECA General Assembly in Rome on 27th March 2018.”
